Official what Oolong are You Drinking Right Now?

[auhckw]

Probably not as premium as the price tag. It is 100g @ MYR200 (USD 67).

For four brews...yikes

After being given a tea like that, for a price like that, I personally would seriously question the intent of whoever sold me that said tea...

But really, normally they (as in many sellers and drinkers I encounter) say the first four brews are the best. To get the best out of the four and stopped at fifth.

[odarwin]

auhckw... i do feel that your tgy leaves looks a bit questionable... i dont think high grade or even normal grade tgy has stems on them... even ultra green tgy doesnt have stems like what you have in your pictures too...

i dont have much experience with taiwan oolongs, but at least for the dong ding oolongs that i have tried do have small stems, but nothing like the stems found in your pictures...

do be careful thou... maybe its hard to find cause its not really supposed to be that way in the first place. good tgy can hold up to more than 5 brews for sure with no problem. no offense, but from the stuff that you are posing on different forums, it gives me the impression that one has to be really careful and best to know something about tea before going into the world of KL tea shops.

[Drax]

When I ordered the latest round of pu'erh offerings from Essence of Tea, i also picked up some of the 1981 Dong Ding aged oolong, and I just had my first chance to try it last night.

I was very surprised by this tea, as it was much more mellow than I was expecting, and to me it was actually very reminiscent of black tea with a light roast. It was quite enjoyable, but certainly nothing like the 1970s Pinlin also from EoT.

I will have to play around with the parameters more on this tea -- has anybody tried this one? I used 5g in a 120mL gaiwan, 15s rinse, and then 60s, 60s, 90s using boiling water. That third steep was already weaker, so I know I need to go much longer tonight when I resume, and I think next time I will use ~8g...

[brandon]

When I ordered the latest round of pu'erh offerings from Essence of Tea, i also picked up some of the 1981 Dong Ding aged oolong, and I just had my first chance to try it last night.

I was very surprised by this tea, as it was much more mellow than I was expecting, and to me it was actually very reminiscent of black tea with a light roast. It was quite enjoyable, but certainly nothing like the 1970s Pinlin also from EoT.

I will have to play around with the parameters more on this tea -- has anybody tried this one? I used 5g in a 120mL gaiwan, 15s rinse, and then 60s, 60s, 90s using boiling water. That third steep was already weaker, so I know I need to go much longer tonight when I resume, and I think next time I will use ~8g...

An aquaintance of mine drinks aged dong ding of this era exclusively. When she brewed it for a mutual friend, he recounted the experience by saying "she turned my teapot into a clown car!" Don't skimp.

[Drax]

"she turned my teapot into a clown car!"

Best. Visual. Evar!

I will ramp it up next time... hehe.

[auhckw]

auhckw... i do feel that your tgy leaves looks a bit questionable... i dont think high grade or even normal grade tgy has stems on them... even ultra green tgy doesnt have stems like what you have in your pictures too...

i dont have much experience with taiwan oolongs, but at least for the dong ding oolongs that i have tried do have small stems, but nothing like the stems found in your pictures...

do be careful thou... maybe its hard to find cause its not really supposed to be that way in the first place. good tgy can hold up to more than 5 brews for sure with no problem. no offense, but from the stuff that you are posing on different forums, it gives me the impression that one has to be really careful and best to know something about tea before going into the world of KL tea shops.

I checked with one of my seniors and he said with stems is usually not high grade and some add stems to increase the weight of the TGY.

I will continue my interview with more people about TGY with stems and get some more knowledge.

Yes, in KL tea shops one has to be careful if he/she doesn't know the shop well. You may get conned easily or pay too much for something not worth it. Which is why I do check with my seniors which has many years of experience from diff groups, before I introduce KLP products.

There is tuition fees to Tea... Live and learn

PS: If you see other nick in other forum, than that is not me.

[Tobias]

When I ordered the latest round of pu'erh offerings from Essence of Tea, i also picked up some of the 1981 Dong Ding aged oolong, and I just had my first chance to try it last night.

I was very surprised by this tea, as it was much more mellow than I was expecting, and to me it was actually very reminiscent of black tea with a light roast. It was quite enjoyable, but certainly nothing like the 1970s Pinlin also from EoT.

I will have to play around with the parameters more on this tea -- has anybody tried this one? I used 5g in a 120mL gaiwan, 15s rinse, and then 60s, 60s, 90s using boiling water. That third steep was already weaker, so I know I need to go much longer tonight when I resume, and I think next time I will use ~8g...

I only bought 10g and when I used half of it in my 60ml gaiwan it still came out too weak. I liked it but I'm all out now and there's just 20g left in stock.

[Cole]

I'm new to the world of (good) oolongs, but I've been enjoying a new flush of Dong Ding from Far Leaves Tea (a local tea shop in Berkeley). I've never had a tea that lasted for 7+ infusions, but I'm having a blast playing with my gaiwan and enjoying the subtleties between each brew. Incredibly floral and smooth at the beginning, and sweet/astringent after 5 or so cups. Great stuff!

Do you folks usually use boiling/near boiling water for all the infusions past the first one, or work up slowly (a la Japanese greens)? It's a bit of a pain turning on my electric pot so often, so I'm thinking I'm going to have to break out my old stove kettle to keep things hot.

[rhondabee]

I'm drinking some extremely delicious, fragrant Li Shan oolong (Spring 2011) from Floating Leaves Tea. The leaves are so green, small and tender and the scent and taste make me sigh with pleasure.

[debunix]

Do you folks usually use boiling/near boiling water for all the infusions past the first one, or work up slowly (a la Japanese greens)?

I used to start teas like this a little cooler, and work up to the near-boiling teas. Lately, though, I start them out at the highest temp setting on my kettle (205 degrees), which keeps it between about 200 and 210 degrees for the whole duration of the session.

I also love the transition in the Alishan oolongs from sweet and floral to spicy and peppery. Lovely teas.

[David R.]

Do you folks usually use boiling/near boiling water for all the infusions past the first one, or work up slowly (a la Japanese greens)?

I used to start teas like this a little cooler, and work up to the near-boiling teas. Lately, though, I start them out at the highest temp setting on my kettle (205 degrees), which keeps it between about 200 and 210 degrees for the whole duration of the session.

I use boiling water for nearly all my teas. The way you pour water onto the leaves, especially in the first brews, may be important as well with your greener oolong and teas in general.

[Ambrose]

Premium Pin-Lin Bao Zhong

[teaisme]

f

Premium Pin-Lin Bao Zhong

from Houde?
How is this years?

[teaisme]

Premium TGY from Anxi starts around $800 US and can goes up to $4500 per pound (competition grade double or triple that price).

ok....so that comes out to a minimum of roughly $50/ounce. And yet on your website you are selling one for $25/oz and one for $42/oz for a spring harvest old bush (if the old bush is not 'premium' pls define what you mean by premium....?). Are these not premium tgy? Those prices you quoted seem awfully high...

[Cole]

Do you folks usually use boiling/near boiling water for all the infusions past the first one, or work up slowly (a la Japanese greens)?

I used to start teas like this a little cooler, and work up to the near-boiling teas. Lately, though, I start them out at the highest temp setting on my kettle (205 degrees), which keeps it between about 200 and 210 degrees for the whole duration of the session.

I also love the transition in the Alishan oolongs from sweet and floral to spicy and peppery. Lovely teas.

Yes! I completely agree -- it starts out so soft and floral, with sweet notes that grow a little spicey as the infusions go on. This one actually starts getting sweet again after the 5th cup or so. It's fun to taste how it slowly "moves" around in your cup.

I think I'll do the 30second wash with slightly cooled water, and keep it right around boiled afterwards. I wasn't sure if this would expunge all of the "good stuff" early (like an improperly brewed japanese green), but it sounds like most Oolongs keep on giving

Now my only problem is that the Dong Ding is so good that I want to try a lighter green oolong and a deep, smoky charcoal-fired oolong to get a feel for the rest of the spectrum. I was never really impressed with the monkey picked or iron goddess oolons when I had them from Peets and other retailers, but I think this tea's really opening my eyes.